The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Pitcairna plant, botanically known as Pitcairnia hitchcockiana, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Red Dragon’.
The new Pitcairnia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Auckland, New Zealand. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new Pitcairnias with relatively straight scapes with long inflorescences and numerous flowers.
The new Pitcairnia originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 1999 of two unnamed proprietary seedling selections of Pitcairnia hitchcockiana, not patented. The cultivar Red Dragon was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Auckland, New Zealand in January, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by divisions in Auckland, New Zealand has shown that the unique features of this new Pitcairnia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.